1. Technical Field
The embodiments described herein relate to online services that include an interface for inputting and outputting information, based on Natural Language Processing, and more particularly to the generation of a virtual agent to act as the user interface and to handle the input and output of information.
2. Related Art
The next generation of the Internet will be based on Artificial Intelligence solutions. On-line applications will mimic real world interactions. The Personal Internet of the future will be where more computing power and high-speed internet connections will enable richer interaction among users and multimedia content. Interfaces based Natural Language Processing and tools for their creation, are becoming popular because Web sites are overloaded with content that is hardly available to users.
Avatars and virtual humans are becoming more and more popular in online and computer based environments. For example, avatars are used as video game characters, as representations associated with email accounts or on a personal web page, such as a personal social network page, and in advertising and other content.
Further, Web sites are becoming increasingly popular as a way to contact customers and convey the key messages from the customer service team. On such sites, a customer or other user can input information and/or questions, navigate menus, and obtain information. Such sites can be interactive, i.e., the user can pose questions or input information through a user interface and the system can respond with further questions or information in an interactive manner that allows the customer or user to obtain, or arrive at the desired information.
Often such interactive user interfaces can be difficult to use or un-intuitive, which can lead to low customer satisfaction or lower usage or adoption of the service. One problem is that customers are used to dealing with people in an interactive manner, and such systems do a poor job of replicating the human experience.